| Grand Diagonale Acting Award | 2026 |

FOR SERVICES TO AUSTRIAN FILM CULTURE

AWARD WINNER: HILDE DALIK

Hilde Dalik © Elsa Okazaki

As part of the festival opening, on March 27, 2025, for the 19th time, the Diagonale will award the Grand Diagonale Acting Award for services to Austrian film culture. This year the award goes to the unique and versatile actor Hilde Dalik. The actor will accept the award, designed by Anita Leisz, in person in Graz on the opening evening.

We at Diagonale express our warmest congratulations!

JURY STATEMENT

“Her passion for acting, her technical skill, her precision, her distinctive humor, and at the same time her capacity for depth are what set Hilde Dalik apart. She has long since earned her place in the Austrian theater, film, and television landscape and regularly demonstrates her versatile talent. She has received numerous awards for her work, including a Romy award in the category of Most Popular Series Actor and the Diagonale Acting Award for her unpretentious performance in the mockumentary  Sargnagl – Der Film. Hilde Dalik consistently demonstrates her range and comedic talent in a convincing manner. Ever since Michael Glawogger’s  Contact High, she has been an integral part of Austrian cinema and it is impossible to imagine it without her. With impressive precision, emotional depth, and great inner truthfulness, she gives each character an unmistakable presence. On screen and on stage, she reveals an extraordinary power – quiet yet at the same time compelling, driven by accuracy, courage, and great truthfulness. Her acting has a lasting impact, far beyond the moment itself, and has made her one of the most important actors of her generation. For all these reasons, the expert jury unanimously voted to award Hilde Dalik the Grand Acting Prize at Diagonale 2026 for her extraordinary services to Austrian cinema.”

Sargnagel – Der Film © Golden Girls Filmproduktion

BIOGRAPHY
Hilde Dalik, born in Vienna in 1978, grew up in Lower Austria and trained as an actor at the Vienna Conservatory and The Actor’s Center in Rome. In 2004, she landed her first leading role in a feature film, Küss mich, Prinzessin! She made a name for herself in theater with productions such as Alma – A Show Biz ans Ende and Der Zerrissene at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck. From 2006, she was a member of the ensemble at the Theater in der Josefstadt, where she appeared on stage in George Tabori’s production of Mein Kampf, among other plays.
Dalik has appeared in numerous film and television productions, including Echte Wiener – Die Sackbauer-Saga, Contact High, and the ORF series Die Lottosieger (2009–2012). She achieved widespread popularity in the television series Vorstadtweiber, in which she played the role of Vanessa from 2016 to 2022. For her dual role as the main character’s best friend and a ruthless extreme version of herself in Sargnagel – Der Film, she was awarded the Diagonale Acting Prize in 2021. Since Season 16, she has appeared in the series Der Bergdoktor as Karin Bachmeier.
As a presenter, Hilde Dalik hosted the StreamTalks program on Canal+, among other things, and in 2024, while hosting the Diagonale opening ceremony in front of the assembled film industry, she shared the recipe for a successful Austrian film. In addition to her work as an actor, Hilde Dalik has been involved in social, integrative, and humanitarian projects for many years.

THE AWARD: An Artwork by Anita Leisz
The work of Anita Leisz (b. Leoben in 1973) explores the interplay of material, space, and perception. Through precise interventions and reduced forms, she transfers industrial materials into new contexts, making their surfaces and structures tangible. Her objects unfold a quiet yet distinct presence in space, drawing the viewer’s attention to subtle shifts between function, body, and environment

→ Anita Leisz at Galery Meyer*Kainer

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